Decorative vs Functional

DECORATIVE PVD APPLICATIONS

PVD has replaced a number of traditional electroplated and painted finishes with advanced coating technology that provides decorative PVD applications that have superior hardness, wear resistance and will not tarnish, chip, fade or corrode. The final deposited layer is a very thin ceramic coating less than 0.5 microns in thickness and in most cases deposited over a chrome plated substrate material. Materials include brass, die-cast, steel, aluminum and ABS plastic. PVD coatings can be applied directly to some materials like stainless steel or titanium.
Our PVD applications can achieve a wide range of colors combining different metals with reactive gases to form metal nitrides and metal carbon nitrides. In some cases, oxygen is used to create oxides in the final deposited layer. Typical metals used include Zirconium, Titanium and chromium. These metals allow us to produce a wide range of colors including silver tones, gold tones, brass tones, black, gray and bronze. By changing the surface preparation we can change the look from a highly polished look to a matte or brushed look and achieve popular finishes like Oil Rubbed Bronze or brushed Nickel.
The PVD coating provides highly brilliant finishes with a wide range of colors including PVD Brass, PVD Gold, PVD TiGold, PVD Chrome, PVD Oil Rubbed Bronze, PVD Copper, PVD Diamond Black, PVD Black Pearl or PVD Black Rainbow. These colors are derived from the following PVD coatings ; Zirconium Nitride (ZrN), Zirconium Carbon Nitride (ZrCN), Titanium Nitride (TiN), Titanium Carbon Nitride (TiCN), Chromium Nitride (CrN), Chromium Carbon Nitride (CrCN).
Product materials include:
Stainless Steel, Titanium, Carbon Steel*, Brass*, Zinc die-cast*, ABS plastic*, Aluminum*
(*Chrome plated or EN)

FUNCTIONAL PVD APPLICATIONS

Since its introduction in the late 1980s, Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) has proven successful on a wide variety of functional applications — improving performance with increased hardness, heat and wear resistance, oxidation resistance, chemical barrier, reduced friction and biomechanical functionality. Carbide and nitride coatings are well suited for increasing the performance of tools due to their higher hardness, thermal stability, and chemical inertness.
The most common coating (TiN) Titanium Nitride is recognizable by its gold color and used on a wide range of functional PVD applications. The coating is biocompatible and has been used in the medical industry for years.
Zirconium Nitride (ZrN) is very good for machining of aluminum alloys.
Chromium Nitride (CrN) provides superior resistance to adhesive wear, chemical corrosion, and oxidation. This coating has a low coefficient of friction, which makes it ideal for die-cast and molding components — helping to reduce galling during the process.
It has also become widely accepted in the medical industry as an alternative to the more commonly used Titanium Nitride (TiN), with the advantage of improved corrosion and oxidation resistance.
There is an increasing demand for environmentally sound coating processes in the Aerospace Industry. Many of the processes currently in use contain hazardous substances such as Cadmium and Hexavalent Chromium. This has resulted in the development of new coating technologies and the increased use of vacuum coating technology for various Aerospace applications.